As I was listening through the most recent episode of the “Histories, Mysteries, & Victories” podcast that I recorded with my pal, Declan Finnegan to make sure the volume was stable throughout before it was posted online, I noticed something that we discussed briefly, the Mercedes Mone title win of the “prestigious” Ring Of Honor Women’s interim championship at the Wrestle Dream pay-per-view. There was also the announcement of another random indy belt that I didn’t catch the name of that was mentioned on last week’s episode of Dynamite.
Of course, this is a ham-handed attempt to try to shoehorn her into the Ultimo Dragon spot when the legendary grappler held ten titles simultaneously when he captured the J-Crown and then added the WCW Cruiser weight championship and NWA Middleweight belt to the collection almost thirty years ago. The problem is two-fold, Mercedes isn’t anywhere near as talented as Ultimo Dragon (that’s not to say that she has zero talent), and it doesn’t come across with importance, but rather just a messy attempt to name random belts that the audience has never heard of. If you want to parse details, the J-Crown was eight belts that were unified so there wasn’t an exhausting list to try to keep track of, and Dragon held it at a time when WCW regularly featured New Japan talent through a working agreement between the two groups so even for the most novice fan, there was a reference point about the concept of this unified collection of belts in Japan. It goes without saying that Mike Tenay provided a tremendous set up with the international information about Japan and Mexico. The primary point that was made about Ultimo Dragon as the J-Crown champion while he had the WCW cruiser weight belt was that it was a representation of the lightweight divisions around the world, hence adding more credibility to him as the WCW Cruiser weight champion. The collection of belts was only a tool to emphasize the legitimate international star that was in a prominent spot on Nitro, which was one of the strong aspects of WCW television as far as the substance of the program to go along with the sizzle of the main event scene later in the show. The Ted Turner organization wasn’t going to have better production value or present sports entertainment better than Vince McMahon, but one of the reasons that Nitro went on the famous 83-week winning streak in the ratings competition was that they brought things to the audience that the WWF didn’t at the time. As much as the argument could be made that the luchadors and Japanese talent were underutilized in WCW as a whole, there’s no doubt that establishing the division on Nitro gave the Turner organization something unique to promote.
In the true slap stick fashion that All Elite Wrestling is known for, the vast majority of the international aspects to the program aren’t explained nearly as clear as they should be and it seems like more often than not, Tony Khan assumes that the American fan base is somewhat familiar with some of the niche Japanese or Mexican organization that are usually discussed in The Wrestling Observer newsletter.
WCW did video packages of the lucha stars and the basic points of lucha libre tradition to give the viewing audience in the United States a basic understanding of what and who they were watching on TBS. It didn’t deep dive into too many details that would dilute the point that was trying to be made through video segments or the announcing work of the previously mentioned Tenay.
It happens way too often that some of the most important information that could be used as the glue of a segment and thus maximize its effectiveness is glossed over because of the inconsistent pace of AEW television. The bits and pieces that make it through the chaotic format don’t connect the dots for the audience.
As mentioned, Mone isn’t anywhere near as influential or as talented as Ultimo Dragon, and the effort to shoehorn her into a scenario where she would try to replicate his success as a multi-time champion comes off as a cheap imitation. She’s trying to force the narrative that she’s an elite, no pun intended, talent and that’s rarely a successful formula to draw money, which is supposed to be the entire point of the business. Ultimo Dragon as the unified J-Crown champion was to push the narrative that WCW had the best light weight wrestlers in the world, which worked as designed. What exactly is the Mone belt collection supposed to push other than her ego? She has a random group of titles with no rhyme or reason behind them so what exactly is the point? Her 12th championship was from an independent league in Winnipeg, and no disrespect to Winnipeg, but how is a title that the audience has never heard of going to do anything productive within the AEW landscape?
Is this gimmick supposed to push her as the best women’s wrestler in the world? Did she collect enough props to get the message across? Again, the entire point of the business is to draw money, or at least it should be, but has Mercedes Mone truly moved the needle for AEW? Maybe the ratings will finally improve after she wins the Poughkeepsie Straw weight title? The whole thing is so cringe worthy and forced that it might actually sour rest of the audience on her as a performer.
By comparison, Manami Toyota is one of the greatest in-ring workers of all time and didn’t need a parade of props to be recognized for her skills.
Still, this is less about Mercedes Mone, she’s just the most glaring example right now, and more about the sum total of the AEW presentation.
As the AEW audience declined by roughly 40% over the past three years after CM Punk left and the novelty of a new promotion wore off so it had to sink or swim on its merit, the question could be asked, what’s the target audience for All Elite Wrestling?
Originally, it was thought that All Elite would be the alternative for the disgruntled WWE fans that had to endure years of drek under the direction of the aging Vince McMahon, who leveraged the fact that he had no legitimate competition to push his personal agenda, not cater to the paying audience. At first, AEW was that alternative and thus had found their audience, the long-suffering demographic that saw talented performers get overlooked or minimized because they weren’t in Vince’s plans. It didn’t matter how much the audience rallied behind Dolph Ziggler in 2019, he was labeled, fairly or unfairly, an injury prone secondary talent by the office. FTR were going to be booked as a comedy tag team despite being the best in-ring team in the business. Dean Ambrose was going to be booked to wear a silly gas mask.
Since Tony Khan gave the fans other option, there was a level of goodwill with the audience for the first few years of AEW’s existence, which is the same goodwill that was eroded when it looked like the All Elite project become less about changing the business, and more about patronizing his vanity project. Ironically, when the WWE went on an upswing with the return of one of the AEW founders, Cody Rhodes, and Vince was exiled in disgrace, most of the narrative of the industry flipped with a level of praise toward the WWE for a few years. Granted, the outrageous TKO ticket prices and overall business strategy has chipped away at that enthusiasm more recently, but the reason that the decline in the AEW numbers is important is that with a decrease from their original target audience, it’s important to determine what their audience is going to be now.
While it’s not unheard of for a promotion to have to adjust their target demographic, as it’s a part of the evolution of any organization, the Mercedes Mone situation might be a microcosm of the current All Elite strategy or lack thereof. Too often across the board of All Elite Wrestling, there are references that a national television audience just isn’t going to be familiar with and it gets lost in translation. Yes, Stardom is a quality organization, but it’s a smaller Japanese league that the vast majority of the viewers of TBS have never heard of. more often than not. Thekla is just a random wrestler on the show because the context for her background wasn’t properly explained, and the same can be said for most of the luchadors on the show. They are thrown onto national television without any build up or introduction so the majority of the audience doesn’t really know who they are, which takes any from some of the true talent. It doesn’t maximize their value to the program or the audience.
That’s when you have to come to the realization that the target audience for AEW, as counter productive as the philosophy might be for a national television product, is the diehard wrestling fans that are already familiar with the stars from some of the niche groups. There’s not a consistent and quality effort to introduce or explain most of the nuance of the AEW brand so maybe that’s because it’s designed for fans that already know who the international talent? Of course, the problem is, if there were enough diehard fans for a niche promotion to get off the ground, it would’ve happened years ago. There a reason that Ring Of Honor didn’t truly reach a national level when it was independently-owned during its heyday, and that it took New Japan a few decades to make even a small dent as far as an expansion into the United States. Right now, it doesn’t seem like the AEW product is being tailored to a national audience, but that’s probably moot since profit isn’t the goal for the company. Since money is no object for Tony Khan, a product that is at least partially based on the reviews of The Wrestling Observer newsletter won’t hinder the existence of the organization, but it undoubtedly puts a ceiling on the amount of fans that will follow the product.
What do you think? Share your thoughts, opinions, feedback, and anything else that was raised on Twitter @PWMania and Facebook.com/PWMania.
Until next week
-Jim LaMotta
Email [email protected] | You can follow me on Instagram, Facebook, & Threads @jimlamotta89
